As reported on TechCrunch.
by Jonathan Shieber
The Crunchies isn’t the only star-studded tech event in town this week.
On Tuesday Goldman Sachs kicks off its “Technology and Internet Conference” and the attendees read like a who’s who of the industry biggest and brightest public and private companies.
Goldman’s tech version of hot-or-not includes presentations from Marissa Mayer atYahoo; Sheryl Sandberg and David Ebersman fromFacebook; a venture capital perspective from Marc Andreessen and Joe Lonsdale from Formation 8; and a send-off with John Chambers from Cisco. (Anyone taking bets on whether he talks about the “Internet Of Things”?)
Private companies are also getting their day in Goldman’s reflected sun with panels on the future of social networking, payments, e-commerce, digital music, and – yup – the Internet Of Things.
I’m not sure all of Goldman’s calls may be spot on. With Klout, Path, and Quora slated to talk about “The Future Of Social Networking,” calling that panel the ghosts of social networking’s past might be more accurate.
Here’s a link to the full agenda: Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference Agenda (1)
Among all of the startups that Goldman has invited to the event, are a few that have the benefit of also being backed by the financial services giant. Dropbox, FireEye, Flipboard,LifeLock, Nutanix and Spotify are all presenting – and all have raised money from Goldman within the last few years, according to data from CrunchBase.
As this Bloomberg report from 2012 noted, Goldman picked up the pace of its venture investments in the wake of Facebook’s public offering. And now those investments may begin to yield dividends as the window for tech public offerings remains wide open.
Goldman backs these kinds of startup companies companies through a variety of investment vehicles including its private equity funds, the firm’s own balance sheet, and through its private wealth management arm which invests on behalf of the firm’s clients.
The list of its investments is by no means complete, because so much of what the firm does is subject to disclosure regulations and the privacy wishes of its well-heeled clientele.
Representatives from Goldman Sachs declined to talk specifically about the firm’s venture investment program.